New “Steppes” Board Dressed

I’m saying “dressed” rather than “finished” simply because I want to continue working on this to improve it, I can see things I’m not happy with, but with an hour here and there I will be.

Let’s just say the focussed flurry of activity is over, and slow, gradual improvements will be made, such as the rock colour of the stepped hill edges, I bought a crappy art paint and its, well, crappy.

There's a few patches where filler scatter has broken loose that need to be quickly hidden, and There's many more of those trees needed.

The buildings all pretty much just have base coat and a drybrush or airbrush and need detail and highlight/shadow work done

But those errors highlighted, I am happy with it.

   

Now I just need to know how it plays…

The Table’s progress

Brace yourselves cos it’s at the “it looks like ass” phase

Its had a blast of textured paint, and a dusting with filler powder, next it gets the spray paint of fury, then the airbrush.

After that it’s flock and done.

Hal’jin asked me on my last post “Is it me though or is it sloping in one direction, making it perfect for some "Omaha" kind of scenario?” and he’s right on the money, as I hoped it would work well for “spearhead” type games where the direction of board travel is reversed, as well as still work for normal deployments.

I’ve got some Imperial sector buildings assembled and a base coat on them, but i’ll hold off posting them for now, at least until threes more detail on them.

To tide you over, here is some of the “window dressing” for this board,

some trees I’ve put together. a bit fragile, but pretty enough to make up for it.

And some resin inca heads I bought while high on paint fumes. they've painted up well though.

Oh and in between all these board shenanigans I got some paint on the Vendatta/Valkyrie from my magnetisation article.

I’ll have to get some pics and get him up too,

That’s all for now, take it easy out there and thanks for dropping by :)

Anyone remember “populous”?

That game took days of my life.

as I work on my latest project, I am reminded of it…

Yeah, it’s time for a new board to play on.

As it stands I’ve done the rough shaping, I’ve got most of the groundwork still to do and then terrain, texture and paint.

I’m aiming for autumnal colours, and there's a “story” or “reason” forming as I build. don't get me wrong, It’s not going to be a board with a narrative gameplay element, but I have to have a reason why the things I’m building are there, it helps me understand why there's a ruined imperial building next to a tree, by a pile of older stones etc etc.

Without that, hm, let’s call it a “rationale”, without that “rationale” the place doesn't come together for me and I find it hard to know what to do next.

The rationale provides a framework for me to make aesthetic decisions, much as when working on a mini.

I’m aiming for a world that's dying off, at a place where the desert gives way to steppes, there will be ruins such as have been left by an early civilisation, and more recent ruins from an imperial archaeology or exploratory team. That’s enough for me to hang it together and make sense of why I'm building.

Anyway, didn't want you all to think I’d wandered off again, so I hope you like the WiP and I’ll share copious pics of the boards when finished :)

Thanks for dropping by!

Elysian Squad done – Plasma Gunners Painted

 

So that’s a full Elysian Vet Squad painted now, with plasma gunners, a Plasma pistol packing sgt, oh and the vox guy got his whip aerial.

 

These three were the final bunch. a bit slap dash, but blame it one the fact that I was sick as a dog last week and have a bit of “gettitfinishednow” syndrome still lingering due the time away from the paint table

solo shots:

 

 

 

 

 

Kasrkin Stormtrooper Desert Scheme

I had to convert the pants of these guys, and I’ll freely admit they are a shoddy job, but they should work on the table.

Ironically, for what was meant to be a shoddy job of converting, and a fairly slap dash paint job, on a real throwaway unit, I actually like these guys a lot.

What does that say about me?

Aaany way here's the solo shots, with a bit of info about each conversion.

 

 

Sarge. in the codex, really does have a Hellgun like the troopers, and not upgrading him to a power weapon or anything keeps the disposable melta delivery system a bit cheaper.

He was a standard trooper till his head came off. replaces with an empire militia head, and a cadian respirator, with GS work to bring it all together.

 

Just a vanilla trooper this one. I did intend to replicate a Kasrkin camo in desert colours, but the base tan just looked really good to me, so I left it unmolested. never underestimate the power of a complimentary colour scheme :)

 

Vanilla trooper two. I spent a bit more time on their faces than the rest of them, knowing those well sculpted masks would be a draw. glad I did, but the rest of them have such glaring faux pas, mould lines, bits of bad paint, ah well. maybe next time I’ll take some care, I do have five more of these somewhere.

 

Melta trooper one, formerly hellgun trooper 3, I chopped it off and swapped in a melta, yes it’s ugly, but it’ll do and it satisfies WYSIWYG

 

This is melta trooper two, formerly flamer trooper one. this one took a bit more doing, involving some press moulded melta bits and the front of a melta gun. it’s ugly too. but looks more like the Kasrkin melta trooper.

Well that's another unit done, you know I might actually reach a point where I can call this IG army “finished” and move on to my Orks or Wolves.

Now that’d be scary.